Telecommunications and data transmission have become increasingly important for our modern society. One very important method of transmitting data has been through the air using a transmitter and a receiver. Both the transmitter and the receiver use an antenna to transmit or receive a signal. Accordingly, there have been many forms of antennas devised to increase the power and directivity of signal transmission and reception.
More recently, antennas have been used to transmit and receive very directional signals that carry digital information. For example, microwave dishes are used in the communications industry to carry telephone messages and other information over long ranges. Internet connections are also being provided using directional broadband equipment, which transmits data to and receives information from subscribers.
Because of the advent of computer networking it is important to be able to send directional data over shorter distances with lower power. Unfortunately, directional antennas such as microwave and satellite antennas are generally too expensive to use for short range, low power signal transmissions. Of course, other types of straight or looped antennas can be used for these short-range transmissions but these configurations often suffer from interference and attenuation when they are transmitting a low power signal.